The Perils of Polyjuice, a Cautionary Tale
Saturday, 22 November 2025
During lunch
Regardless of how often she did this, looking down at her hands and seeing them shaped differently from her own slender duellist's hands never ceased to give Dealla a moment of disorientation. Most other things came easy at this point; the change was less painful than before, slipping into a new shape like she'd been born into it. Gone were the days in which she needed to get used to a new body, practising how to stand, how to walk, how to push her hair from her face without poking herself in the eye.
Today's transformation was a younger boy, maybe thirteen years old, but tall and gangly for his age. She'd picked up his hair at a small café in London during the few days she had spent in England, around the time of the wedding. He'd seemed like a sweet kid from the few glances she'd caught of him across the tables, quiet and thoughtful, but any twinges of guilt she might have originally felt at impersonating these strangers had long since been squashed. They'd never know, after all, and no one here knew them, which was the point. It wasn't even impersonating, per se, since she didn't know anything about them, not their names, not their personalities. There would be no awkward questions, no encounters where she was expected to be anyone in particular - not Dee, nor anyone else. No expectations, no questions, no consequences. That freedom was the reason she kept coming back to the Polyjuice recipe, hidden in one of her drawers in the Martial Eagle dormitory.
She was sitting at the Hufflepuff table for lunch today, just close enough to other students not to seem strange, but clearly by herself. No one had approached her so far, and she was simply listening to the chatter of another group to her left. Being anonymous meant that no one particularly cared if she overheard them, as she was never associated with the object of the conversation. It was a great method for gathering gossip, she mused. Maybe she should offer her services to the Headliner - didn't they have a rumour column?
This conversation seemed rather tame, however, and Dee shook her head to herself before returning to her vegetable pasta. Maybe she should have sat with the Slytherins instead; there was always tea to be had at the snake table. This group was only talking about homework, and complaining how strict this professor or the next was. Spearing another piece of pasta with her fork, Dee's thoughts drifted off. She'd come straight down to lunch after transforming, so there was still a good chunk of time left before she had to return to her dormitory. Maybe she'd go pay the Quidditch pitch a visit, or cause some chaos in the library...
@Mylo Atkins
"One can never consent to creep when one feels an impulse to soar."
The Perils of Polyjuice, a Cautionary Tale
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XXXXX𝓕ood, it was one of the few things on Mylo's mind as they walked through the castle on their way to the great hall to have their lunch. He had spent the entire morning trying to finish their History of Magic homework and as much as they loved the subject they had gotten stuck on a part of the essay, leaving them to rewrite it multiple times trying to figure out what he wanted to say. They had gotten so absorbed in the subject, researching more than he probably needed to in the hopes that he would find the magical bit of information that would help them continue, that they hadn't realised how much time had passed. This meant that they had forgotten to have their usual snack which left him very much looking forward to his lunch.
Walking into the great hall was always an experience, the room somehow still as impressive as the last time they had seen it, Mylo knew that this likely wouldn't change as it was exactly the same for the rest of the school, maybe it was the actual magic inside the space that kept the wonder alive. At least it wasn't too crowded, something he really appreciated as it meant they didn't have to spend too much time looking for a place to sit, so looking around Mylo spotted a few options that he could make use of.
Having seen that one of the tables at the Ravenclaw table had an empty spot near the door Mylo made their way over to it, that was at least until their eyes roamed over the Hufflepuff table and a very familiar face came into view.
"It can't possibly be...."
The sight had stopped Mylo in their tracks, as the face they saw in front of them he hadn't seen in at least a year, and they hadn't in any way shape or form expected to see one of their friends from before Hogwarts at the school.
Ever since Mylo had gone to school they had slowly lost contact with their friends, as both of them had moved and were busy with their own thing, he fully understood it. They just couldn't believe that one of them had actually also been attending Hogwarts, he must have started this year as there was no way Mylo hadn't seen him in the last two, maybe he had transferred from one of the international schools?
A student trying to get past pulled Mylo out of their thoughts, they hadn't realised just how much the sight had confused them, and there really was only one place that they could go and sit now. And so Mylo walked over to the Hufflepuff table, still slightly bewildered at the amount of questions that had surfaced, excitement bubbling up at the idea of reconnecting with a friend they hadn't seen in ages.
Getting closer there was no mistaking it, this had to be Sam, Mylo still couldn't quite believe it but in these past few years they had learnt that nothing was impossible. So taking one of the empty spots next to their old friend they couldn't stifle the happy smile that had appeared on their face as they looked at Sam after not having seen him for such a long time.
"Hi Sam! I didn't realise that you attended Hogwarts as well, how are you?"
𝐃𝐑𝐄𝐀𝐌 𝐎𝐍, 𝐋𝐈𝐓𝐓𝐋𝐄 𝐃𝐑𝐄𝐀𝐌𝐄𝐑 ; 𝓯𝓵𝓸𝔀𝓮𝓻𝓼 𝔀𝓲𝓵𝓵 𝓫𝓵𝓸𝓸𝓶 𝓪𝓰𝓪𝓲𝓷. xx |
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| sta • 8 | eva • 7 | str • 5 You will grow strong wis • 10 | arc • 7 | acc • 8 | Perf. | Wand. | Calm. pres. In the softest way ability | ability | ability |
The Perils of Polyjuice, a Cautionary Tale
Banner by Ariana Westonfield-Rivera
It was easy to get lost in the anonymity that Polyjuice Potion offered. Originally, her little collection of Muggle hair had only been meant to help her test the potion, the quality and how it worked, without having to impersonate her room mate again. (She'd confessed to Peri soon after, but it had come with the explicit promise to not do it again - and anyway, she'd learned her lesson about pretending to be someone so recognisable.) And yet, she'd quickly realised the freedom it gave her to wear a face no one at Hogwarts recognised. It was almost addictive, and had gone on much longer already than she had originally intended. And why wouldn't she let it go on? What could go wrong? The odds were entirely in her favour.
When someone else sat down next to her, she didn't react immediately, instead taking her time in chewing and swallowing her last bite of pasta. It wasn't rare for someone to approach, be it with a friendly offer for companionship or a more specific inquiry. That was also why it took her a long moment to realise that when the wix addressed Sam, they were talking to her.
Dee froze with her glass halfway to her lips. It couldn't be, it wasn't possible. What were the odds, one in a million? Less? That she'd just so happened to pluck the hair off a Muggle that someone here acutally knew - and for that person to spot her here on top of it? It was ridiculously unlikely, the chance so slim she might have called it impossible, yet here they were. She almost laughed at herself. Beating the odds in all the worst ways.
Setting the glass down, she turned to face whoever had chosen to throw a wrench into her smooth-cruising afternoon - and immediately brightened up. "Mylo!" Lucky for her, she actually recognised said wrench. A silver lining more than a stroke of luck but she'd take it. It would have been awkward if she hadn't even known the name of her supposed friend (acquaintance? Hopefully not relative), but Mylo was both prefect and the new captain of the Ravenclaw racing team, which meant Dee at least knew their name, if not much else.
"What a crazy coincidence!" That much was true, but from now on, she'd need to make use of her ability to smoothtalk herself out of a tough spot. "I didn't know you were here, either? Couldn't believe it when I got my letter." Not for the first time, Dee wished she paid better attention to her peers. If she had, maybe she'd know whether Mylo was from a wizarding family, but from their reaction, they at least hadn't known that Sam was magical, too. (Which made sense, since he wasn't.) "My ma thought it was a scam, but then the professor showed us some magic, and there wasn't really much she could do but believe it then..." Dee trailed off. Did she seem too excitable? The lad she'd seen in the café had made a more reserved impression, after all. Fixing her posture slightly, she suppressed the urge to keep talking and make up some story about transferring from Ilvermorny. She didn't know, after all, whether that was even possible - for all she knew, Mylo and this Sam kid were neighbours, and as she'd learned during previous excursions: Sometimes less was more.
@Mylo Atkins
"One can never consent to creep when one feels an impulse to soar."
The Perils of Polyjuice, a Cautionary Tale
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XXXXX𝓔ven as Sam turned to him, and seemed to brighten up at the sight of them, Mylo still couldn't quite believe that Sam was sat right in front of them. A crazy coincidence indeed, truly what were the odds of this happening?
As Sam talked about receiving his own letter Mylo remembered when he got his, a pang of sadness following the memory as they hadn't been able to share the news with their two friends at the time believing both to be muggles. As much as Mylo had wanted to talk to both of them about it they couldn't, having to tell them both that he was going to a boarding school in Scotland and wouldn't be able to easily communicate with them. As much as Mylo didn't want their electronics exploding they still couldn't believe that sending letters was the only way wizards had found to communicate with one another, magic could do so much and this was the best they could come up with??
Either way, if they had known that Sam would also be a wizard Mylo would have been ecstatic as the two of them could have talked about it from the beginning, even if it was just through letters and such. Maybe they could have even met up during the summer camps or balls, as they were the few times all the schools would get together. But then again maybe Sam couldn't haven't attended any of them, it was quite far away even with magical means.
The comment about his mother believing the letter to be scam brought a small chuckle out of them, a memory popping up of the time that she held a poor salesman at the door for probably a full 45 minutes explaining to him how the product he was selling could be improved, and that what they were selling could be classed as a scam with how inefficient it was. Mylo just hoped that the professor had managed to prove that magic was real quickly enough to avoid getting a free lecture about how playing pranks on innocent people was a waste of their life and that they could be doing something much more productive with their time.
Mylo hadn't realised how much they had missed being around someone he had known before Hogwarts (besides their family) until Sam fell silent, seemingly unsure of what to do, mirroring Mylo's own feeling about meeting a friend again after such a long time. But all they'd need was a kickstart, at least that's what Mylo hoped, and they would be back to the way things were before.
"Oh, I truly hope that professor got their demonstration out in time, otherwise they'd have been in for a wild ride. I still remember that poor salesman, I'm not sure he was even aware of the specifics of what he was selling but after that lecture your mom gave him he sure was." They commented, a smile on their face. "How is she by the way, and how are you? Did you get sent to a international school or join late? Magic is insane isn't it, so many possiblities." They rambled off, the questions coming out quicker than Mylo could process them, but he quickly realised that maybe this was slightly too much for a 'first' meeting after such a long time. So taking a breath they tried again.
"Sorry, maybe a few questions too many." They chuckled "Let's just start with one. How are you and the rest of your family doing?"
𝐃𝐑𝐄𝐀𝐌 𝐎𝐍, 𝐋𝐈𝐓𝐓𝐋𝐄 𝐃𝐑𝐄𝐀𝐌𝐄𝐑 ; 𝓯𝓵𝓸𝔀𝓮𝓻𝓼 𝔀𝓲𝓵𝓵 𝓫𝓵𝓸𝓸𝓶 𝓪𝓰𝓪𝓲𝓷. xx |
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| sta • 8 | eva • 7 | str • 5 You will grow strong wis • 10 | arc • 7 | acc • 8 | Perf. | Wand. | Calm. pres. In the softest way ability | ability | ability |
The Perils of Polyjuice, a Cautionary Tale
Banner by Ariana Westonfield-Rivera
When Mylo didn't immediately call her out on her bullshit, Dee let herself relax a little. She'd talked herself out of worse situations, right? She'd be fine. Mylo, helpfully, started to ramble about Sam's mother and how she apparently liked to traumatise poor salesmen who were just trying to make a living, and Dee thought that maybe they should count themselves lucky that Sam was, in fact, a Muggle, and no professor had to visit him or his terrifying mother. Although it seemed she had landed a lucky hit with Sam's mother being the stiff, uptight sort of person who thought magic was nonsense and that anyone not working a traditional job was automatically a leech on society.
"Oh, yeah," Dee chuckled, only a little stiffly, then soldiered on. "Yeah. Was it hoovers? Or... microwaves? I think I remember something about that." Thinking quickly, Dee decided that pretending she had only started attending Hogwarts was the safest choice. It didn't seem like Mylo had recently seen their friend Sam, from the way they didn't question his sudden appearance at the school. Which also meant Dee could simply leave her fantasy free reign. "She also barely let Professor, um, Hogworth get a word in edgewise." There, an invented professor from, umm, Ilvermorny, since Dee didn't speak any other languages. If Mylo asked an Ilvermorny student about a Professor Hogworth next time, well... Sam would be long gone. "The poor professor just lost patience at some point and levitated my mum's favourite crystal vase." Any woman who lectured innocent strangers on their life choices was sure to have a favourite crystal vase, right? "Which wasn't quite enough to convince ma, but it at least stopped her constant lecturing for a few seconds."
Apparently Mylo wasn't quite willing to accept their old friend's sudden appearance without asking at least a few questions, but they seemed happy enough to accept any explanation, no matter how far-fetched. Joining Hogwarts late? Was that even possible? Dee hadn't ever heard of it, apart from transfers from other schools in recent years. If some poor kid didn't show any signs of magic before their eleventh birthday, their name just never showed up in the Book of Admittance. Easier for her, however - if she'd been confronted with someone as sharp and skeptical as @Evelynn Decipio again, her whole cover might have been blown. "Oh, I went to Ilvermorny first," Dee replied easily. Better to keep the when vague, she wasn't sure how old this Sam kid was supposed to be. Now, time to push it a bit and hope her luck held out. "My family moved to the US for a few years, and we only came back here a few days ago. Which is why I'm now here." Easy.
Less easy was the question about Sam's family. Okay, so there was an overbearing mother. Presumably another parental figure, although Mylo hadn't mentioned such. Siblings? That seemed too risky to take a blind guess on. "Oh, you know," she said instead. "Doing okay overall, currently everything's super busy though." Time to deflect. "We're all still adjusting to being back here. Settling into new jobs or," she made a gesture around them, "new schools. The house is still a mess, too, or at least it was when they put me on the train here. Probably not anymore, though, knowing my mum." As befitting someone who owned state-of-the-art hoovers and microwaves. And now... redirect. "How about you, though? How do you like it here at Hogwarts? How's your family, your parents?"
@Mylo Atkins
"One can never consent to creep when one feels an impulse to soar."
The Perils of Polyjuice, a Cautionary Tale
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XXXXX𝓘t was amazing to talk with Sam again after such a long time, but there was something different. It had been a while so this was to be expected, so Mylo ignored the nagging voice at the back of their head telling them that Sam wouldn't make such a trivial mistake.
"Oh, no it was this cleaning product remember, something cheesy like grease attack. She couldn't help but talk about how 2 of the ingredients actually cancelled each other out so it was just glorified water." Mylo commented, rationalising that it had been such a long time since the event that it was reasonable that Sam had gotten the details mixed up. "I remember we laughed about it for so long, the poor guy looked absolutely dazed."
At the name drop of the professor that had come to visit him Mylo knew that Sam had gone to an international school first, as he didn't recognise the name. A grimace escaping their face as Sam recounted his mom's response to the information she had been given, she was a great woman but didn't take any nonsense so Mylo was glad the professor had been able to quickly prove his innocence before she drained his energy completely and he just gave up.
Their move also explained a lot, staying in contact when moving to another street was already difficult but when moving to another continent it just amplified those difficulties, especially when they were both in magical schools that didn't allow for electronic communication. "Wow, how was Ilvermorny? I haven't really heard too much about that school, did you meet many new people?" Mylo's curiosity getting the better of them and taking over their mouth, spewing out a few more questions even though Sam hadn't answered all of the previous ones.
It was also nice to hear that everyone was doing great, not surprising to hear that the house was likely spick and span already, but once again the voice popped up as Sam failed to mention anything about his little brother, but he did mention new schools so once again Mylo pushed the voice to the side. Sam wouldn't lie to him. "How's Max doing?" He asked, hoping that Max was doing alright as the last time Mylo had seen him they had been trying to help him with his anger issues.
"I'm good! Schools good and I've met a lot of nice people, the subjects are really interesting, magic is fascinating!" Mylo smiled, always having loved learning but adding magic on top of it just amplified the fun. "Dad and pa and doing great, pa still teaches music so there's a lot of background noise at home. Andrea is also just as energetic as always, she's been trying to force magic pretty much everyday from what I've been hearing. She really wants to join me here and I really hope that she can." The answered, smiling at the memory of Andrea staring at an orange, trying to make it float for a full 15 minutes.
Still the voice that something was off didn't leave, but Mylo ignored it, just happy to be with an old friend.
𝐃𝐑𝐄𝐀𝐌 𝐎𝐍, 𝐋𝐈𝐓𝐓𝐋𝐄 𝐃𝐑𝐄𝐀𝐌𝐄𝐑 ; 𝓯𝓵𝓸𝔀𝓮𝓻𝓼 𝔀𝓲𝓵𝓵 𝓫𝓵𝓸𝓸𝓶 𝓪𝓰𝓪𝓲𝓷. xx |
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| sta • 8 | eva • 7 | str • 5 You will grow strong wis • 10 | arc • 7 | acc • 8 | Perf. | Wand. | Calm. pres. In the softest way ability | ability | ability |